In 2009, asset protection specialists watched a major Internal Revenue Service drive to flush out secret foreign bank accounts while a financial crisis brought to light mammoth Ponzi schemes and took down publicly traded companies. But we saw few...
Perhaps one of the most noticeable developments I'm seeing in the last couple of years is clients and their advisors paying increasing attention to situs and jurisdiction selection in estate planning. Indeed, they're regularly considering...
The unsettled estate tax environment and harsh economic climate have created a new competitiveness: to be considered the jurisdiction for trusts and win the most trust business. Clients certainly are benefitting. If they select the right...
Here we sit like birds in the wilderness, birds in the wilderness. Here we sit like birds in the wilderness, waiting to be fed. Waiting to be fed. Waiting to be fed. Here we sit, like birds in the wilderness, waiting to be fed. Anyone who has...
The year 2009 was less than two weeks old when Congressman Earl Pomeroy (D-N.D.) introduced a bill1 with the express purpose of legislatively prohibiting discounts for transfers of interests in family-owned holding companies when the underlying...
The year 2009 was very rough on retirement accounts. Not only did they take a hit from the economic downturn, but also many suffered because of swindlers like Bernard Madoff. And some were drained by the very rules, bureaucracies and agencies set...
Estate and gift tax valuation positions associated with family limited partnerships (FLPs) often are challenged by the Internal Revenue Service and somewhat unpredictably adjudicated by the courts. But in the last two years, taxpayers have won...
If Ponzi schemer Bernard Madoff serves no other purpose, he's a stark reminder that anyone acting in a fiduciary capacity must maintain high standards of ethical conduct in all dealings with customers and clients. In fact, it could be argued that...
Often, grandparents, aunts, uncles, godparents and the like want to help disabled relatives by leaving them some money. That's why every attorney familiar with drafting special needs trusts (SNTs) advises his clients (typically the parents of the...
